Sun Tzu is popular among
salespeople. To serve this market, a number of authors have written
books that link Sun Tzu to sales. This author has been actively
selling since the early nineties, and has applied ideas from Sun Tzu
to the selling process, albeit to include a different approach than
most other authors have examined.

Sun Tzu writes about advantages
and how to gain them. I do seek to gain advantages over my
competitors. They are my adversaries after all. I avoid, however,
actively seeking an advantage over my customers. That kind of
advantage tends to be counterproductive in the long-term. Instead,
I seek to provide my customers with advantages over their
adversaries, better enabling them to act in accord with Sun Tzu’s
principles. To do this, I need to know my customers and myself, and
the process of gaining that knowledge produces very positive sales
results for all involved.

I have published a product
called The Sales Strategy Fundamentals that is not obviously
related to Sun Tzu. Look a little deeper, however, and it ties into
one of the most important but most often overlooked aspects of using
Sun Tzu’s ideas. That aspect is to know the fundamentals of your
profession perfectly. As an illustration, Sun Tzu said, “to feign
disorder, you must first have perfect order.”

“The Sales Strategy Fundamentals is an excellent
tool for improving sales performance. It takes users right to
the heart of professional selling and presents the skills
needed to succeed with exceptional clarity.”

Brian Lambert, CEO of the United Professional Sales
Association

The underlying idea is the same
in sales. Not that you should ever be feigning disorder, though I
have learned that with some customers wearing your best suits can be
a turn off. But before you can become a master seller, you must
have the fundamentals down perfect. The best in professional sales
never stop practicing the fundamentals, just as in Sun Tzu’s times,
soldiers never stopped drilling. The fundamentals have to come
naturally, without the salesperson thinking about them too much, or
customers read right into them. That means customers might not
trust your actions, even when you work in their best interests.